Magazine

The Thames and I, on and off the page

Also this week: London’s busted bridges, questionable public art and the assisted dying bill.

The end of the alliance

With Donald Trump threatening to rip up Europe’s post-Cold War security architecture, the continent’s leaders must assume responsibility for their…

Jonathan Sumption: “Democracy is impossible for the state to satisfy”

The former judge on the limits of politics, the Chagos Islands and Trumpism.

The legacy of “pro-life” abortion bans is death

Infant mortality rates in the US have rapidly increased since Roe vs Wade was overturned in 2022.

Please email [email protected] if you would like to be featured.

This England: Grituitous puns

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…

I watched Emilia Pérez with a fuming friend

Now we have nightmares about bums.

AI in breast cancer screening may do more harm than good

The complexity of medical practice is at odds with politicians’ thirst for good headlines.

Why do so few wine-makers speak of love?

Romance is as important an ingredient as terroir.

From Sophy Roberts to Bettina Anton: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring Eric Ravilious Through the Eyes of his Contemporaries introduced by Alan Powers and Humans: A Monstrous History by…

An ode to female friendships

From Elena Ferrante to Amandaland, the power of brilliant friends is rightly celebrated.

JD Vance’s “free speech” hypocrisy

Also this week: a proliferation of new London media outlets, and another baby for Elon Musk.

Letter of the week: Strictly speaking

Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.

Making China great again

The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd writes that Xi Jinping has embraced an assertive nationalism that aims to put…

Mickalene Thomas’s ode to Black joy

The American artist turns 19th-century paintings of women into celebrations of friends, family and lovers – with plenty of rhinestones.

The inattention pandemic

The tyranny of social media has made us all minor celebrities: exhausted and narcissistic.

James Blunt live: a nostalgia karaoke

It is 20 years since Back to Bedlam – and its songs have ascended to anthemic status in the years…

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s triumphant return

Dream Count, the Nigerian writer’s first novel in more than a decade, is a powerful exploration of misogyny, masculinity and…

Penal populism has broken Britain’s prisons

Lazy “tough on crime” rhetoric has led to a crisis of overcrowding.

Shon Faye and the problem of love

In this memoir-cum-manifesto, the author explores the politicised nature of love – and why it seems to elude us.